Monday, April 22, 2013

Have you ever wondered seeing the arrangements of food materials in the warehouse or storage. Even in supermarkets foods are stored in the same way.

The reason is because-FOOD SAFETY.

Warehousing or storage of food materials is an essential PRP of CODEX HACCP.

Why we need special practice to store food materials? Why can't food be stored like other materials or chemicals. Some of the reasons

To reduce spoilage of foods

To reduce cross contamination of foods

To reduce the contamination of other chemicals with foods

To keep the food away from pests and rodents

To keep food away from water

If food is stored properly under controlled conditions they can stay unspoiled upto the whole shelf life of the material. But improper storage practices will lead to spoilage of food materials very easily.

Have you ever seen the material named pallets?

Up in the picture you can see a pallet made in plastics. All food materials should be stored above ground level. This is avoid food materials getting wet from the floor of the stores and also to avoid spoilage of food through various pests and rodents. Wooden pallets are not allowed to store the foods and so only plastic pallets can be used. All the time food should be stored above the pallets and these pallets should be clean so that microbial and chemical contamination of food from the pallets can be reduced.

Some of practices which has to followed in food warehouse are

Storing food always away from the walls- to clean the floor and walls properly and to check pest activities near wall

Storing allergens away from regular foods- this can avoid cross contamination of allergens with other foods

Storing cleaning materials and chemicals away from the foods to avoid contamination

Keeping all food under good packed conditions

Most important practice of warehousing for ready to eat foods such as meat products is the storage temperature. When foods are frozen they should be kept only under frozen conditions. Meat products and milk should be stored under 4 degree celsius. Also humidity of the storage is also taken into consideration and it varies with the product similar to the temperature.